Spiral Knights - Using Four Weapons: Coping Mechanisms?

Using Four Weapons: Coping Mechanisms?

35 replies [Last post]

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 03:07

Darkbrady

So yeah, ever since I started, using more than two weapons has always been a hassle for me, 'cuz I'm bad at remembering where everything is in relation to each other, especially in the heat of battle, when cycling to 1/3 away.

Personally, I compartmentalise into [damage] and [effect/status] weapons, then alternate them.
[damage] sword
[effect] haze/maybe a vortex
[damage] DBB/Nitro/type specific vortex
[effect] haze/maybe a vortex

This is generally the setup I use, so that I start with my sword, then roll twice for my dps bomb. Whatever the case, it's always rolling twice, up or down. Then roll once in any direction for my support weapon, usually haze bombs, and drop one, then it's a matter of rolling twice in any direction to get to the other one. After that, simply just a single roll in any direction to get back to damage weapons.

This is the best I can think of to keep me always on track for what I need in the heat of battle without accidentally switching to the completely wrong weapon (and when you immediatelly charge up (hell, even if you don't!), that really slows you down, when you use bombs) or having to stop and think about which direction to roll in.

It seems like a small issue, but when the middle of combat gives you little time and space for error, such as Lairs, Danger Rooms, Party Buttons etc, it can actually be an issue that can cause serious problems, if you're ever unfortunate enough to do it.

How do you cope with this issue? Any coping mechanisms, or do you just watch the weaponwheel change to what you want? Are all your weapons useful enough that it doesn't matter if you get the wrong one?

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 04:30

Fradow

Since some months ago, the

Since some months ago, the devs added some very useful key bindings to allow you to choose which weapon you want to use instead of cycling through. Now, the simple solution is to just dedicate 4 keys to your four weapons, and forget about the wheel.

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 04:53

Darkbrady

Oh I don't think I could ever

Oh I don't think I could ever use them; left hand is decidated to movement, right hand is charge spamming; I'm unreliable at gettin' keys hit right for selectsion like that, wheel's the way for me...just find it awkward w/ 3 other options QQ

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 05:17

Fradow

!Warning! promotion of gaming

!Warning! promotion of gaming specific devices :
With the right devices, you can use a hand to do 2 tasks without problem :
- using left hand for movement with your thumb only, and select weapon/vials with other fingers : a G13 is perfect for that (or other left-hand specific devices, there are a few out there)
- using right hand for spamming + aiming, and the thumb to select weapons : a Razer Naga have enough buttons for whatever you need (I don't know of any other mice that have nearly the same number of buttons).

And if you ever step in a LAN, both look awesome.

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 05:39

Darkbrady

My mouse has loads of

My mouse has loads of buttons, but I don't think I can bind them to controls in SK...i really should go try o_o

edit: nope :(

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 05:56

Stavrosg

My solution...

My solution was to disable the mousewheel scroll entirely. Fortunately, it also serves as a middle mouse button, so I mapped "Next Weapon" on wheel PRESS, so now I just cycle serially through them.
My usual setup is
Sword A (main stratum sword, eg Acheron in RJP)
Sword B (alt sword - Combuster)
Gun (the stratum's relevant alchemer, or Argent in Fiend strata)
Bomb (AoA / Shivermist / VT)

so, as I fight with the main sword, I click once to change damage type, then 3 times to get back on main sword. Once or twice gets me on the gun if I'm low on health or to kill the odd gunpuppy, and one more to plant the bomb before spawning that monster wave. I became so used to this setup, that I don't even think, everything happens automatically.

Another note on the setup: I use WASD for movement, left mouse button for shielding and right for attacking. It works pretty well.

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 06:02

Darkbrady

You use right click to

You use right click to attack? I use it them the other way around, I think that'd kill me tryin' to right-click attack xD

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 06:07

Stavrosg

Ugh...

I think that the gunslinger guide recommended this setup, I tried very early on and I found out that it's working well for me. Now I'm too used to it to change, but sure, the other way around should work equally well.

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 08:17

Bopp

for what it's worth, my experience

I use my right hand for aiming/attacking and my left hand for movement and everything else. The scroll wheels on my two mice are so sensitive that I cannot use them for weapon switching; I disable them. When Three Rings added the hotkeys for weapon switching, I tried them out, but found that my left hand was overloaded. So I use the left shift key to switch weapons, and nothing else.

With this setup, I too find four weapon slots too difficult to manage. My solution is to use only three weapon slots. It's a bit of a cop-out, I admit. The good news is that I never feel disadvantaged by my lack of a fourth weapon; three is certainly good enough. (And my secondary character plays with only two.)

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 08:31

Demonicsothe

Since, we are on the topic of

Since, we are on the topic of controls, I use a mix. Left click for movement, right click attack, mouse wheel for weapons. Shield is on left shift and ~. Why? Because my left hand was in a cast when i started playing.

Now I use mixed controls. I'll switch to wasd if my right hand is tired, or if I'm circle kiting with aveneger/volt driver. Left shift for shield in that situation.

My mouse wheel is decent. Its got that little bit of resistance to scrolling, so each bump I get over means a weapon over.

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 09:28

#10

Arquebus

I like two

I've used all numbers of slots, and two is my favorite. It was three before the arsenal chest update, but (and this may just be gunner talk) you really only need two weapons for any given level you're in, and now that you can switch, that third is just not as necessary as it used to be. I got myself used to more slots, and it does definitely throw you off at first, and it can be effective... but I still believe two is the way to go. Boss levels are the only ones where I find myself missing a third sometimes, but even then, two is usually sufficient, since you only need a boss-killer and a level-killer (Volcanic Pepperbox and Biohazard for RJP, Nova Driver and some sword for IMF, Blitz Needle and one of many guns for FSC).

I use my tablet for aiming and WASD for movement. One of the buttons on the pen is mapped to right click, so that covers my attack. Tablets are amazing for aiming since you can whip around and shoot precisely in instants.

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 10:08

#11

Nordlead

2 weapons is ok if you go

2 weapons is ok if you go with just that weapon. I primarily use swords and pretty much always bring two. However, my 3rd slot is for bomb/gun depending on the stage. So, for FSC it is Combuster/BTB/Voltaic Tempest, for RJP it is Combuster/Acheron/Voltaic Tempest, and for IMF it is Combuster/Acheron/Magma Driver.

For 4 weapons I'd probably get lost, since with 3 my alternate weapons are just one mouse wheel scroll away from my primary sword.

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 10:19

#12

Trying

Try this Use WASD for

Try this

Use WASD for movement
Spacebar for switch weapon
Shift for weapon 1
Ctrl for weapon 3

That way every weapon is 1 or 2 button presses away and you dont get messed up since you use your thumb and pinky.

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 11:00

#13

Bopp

shield?

Trying, where is shielding in that control layout?

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 11:29

#14

Otaia

The very first thing I was

The very first thing I was told to do upon installing the game was to bind left click to attack and right click to shield. So much more intuitive than the defaults. QERF and ZXCV work pretty well for weapon binds.

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 12:07

#15

Batabii

Using three weapons

Using three weapons simplifies it, if you have the wrong weapon just scroll one more time. And you're never more than one scroll from any weapon.

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 13:24

#16

Trying

standard

Left click is attack and right click is shield

you can swap it if you want

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 13:28

#17

Mysticbeam

i usually just kite while pressing spacebar to cycle thre weps

i use wasd to move
e to shield
spacebar to cycle thru weps,mouse movement to aim, right click to atk, and left clik as a secondary movement, usually while in haven for running in circles
(wasd isnt good at moveing in circles or loops or curves :P)

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 13:59

#18

Fradow

I seriously can't understand

I seriously can't understand how you can all manage with that cycling thing. I bitched for months before they implement the commands for specific weapons, because it would make me have the wrong weapon all the time (yeah, even with training, I change of weapons often too).

I switched to direct weapon selection as soon as it was added and never looked back. Now, I never the select the wrong weapon unless running an unusual weapon loadout.

But hey, if it works for you ...

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 14:08

#19

Darkbrady

I love the cycling because a/

I love the cycling because
a/ got used to it when I only had two weapons, and there was no weapon binding options anyways
b/ it's nice, quick, and at-hand, and doesnae require me moving away my WASD hand, which prety much always gets a bit of me stabbed.

With three weapons it took a slight gettin' used to, but was ok; but for four weapons the adjustment period was massive. I spent months having to failscroll the wrong way and generally just screw it all up.
I only very recently come up with my alternating types system (which, btw, works amazinlgy for me) but cannae help but wonder how everyone else has managed to cope for so long, and if there's any wee tricks that'd work for me better than mine! D:

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 14:22

#20

Mohandar

key binding is crucial for 4 weapons

Any mouse with an additional 2 buttons (plus L/R/middle) makes weapon switching easy. My preference is L- interact/attack, R- shield, middle/wheel- autoaim, side1- Gun, side2- secondary, spacebar- sword/primary, leftshift- bomb/tertiary, wasd for movement. A very similar setup is spacebar for autoaim, and primary mapped to another button or swapped.

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 15:00

#21

Paweu

You can always bind your

You can always bind your wheelup, wheeldown and middle mouse button to slots, nothing stops you.

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 22:18

#22

Velcro

I generally use (with the

I generally use (with the scrolling way of changing weapons)

1. Sword of some damage type, usually elemental.
2. Vortex Bomb
3. Sword of a different damage type.
4. Gun or possibly sword of a third damage type. (If I use a third sword here, my third sword becomes Acheron and this becomes BTB)

The reason is for a quick switch to either a Glacius, Acheron, or BTB to combo on a Vortex clump.

The gun being something I use fairly infrequently.

Wed, 01/18/2012 - 00:17

#23

Aryll

When I finally decided to get

When I finally decided to get a fourth weapon slot I had just as much trouble trying to adjust.
I tried to use keybindings and at first my fingers just kinda derped out half the time. Or I would only use certain hotkeys and not the others. Eventually I got used to it though and it's way more convenient than scrolling with so many weapons.

My hotkeys for weapon slots are Q, E, R, F. It works for me so my fingers don't have to move much and I can still swap weapons while using wasd.

Wed, 01/18/2012 - 02:55

#24

Batabii

I use cycling for most FPSes.

I use cycling for most FPSes. Games like TF2, L4D2, and MNC don't have a huge collection of weapons, and it's easy to see what I have out at the time.

For the record, my keybinds are:

m1: attack (three rings has it backwards wtf)
m2: shield
m3: voice chat (why do hardly any players use it?!)
WASD= movement
Numpad=emotes (follow, help, etc)
And all the default binds I pretty much leave alone.

Wed, 01/18/2012 - 10:29

#25

Omega-Shadow-Death

A Mechanic I switched to recently

This mechanic isn't really useful for 4 weapon loadouts but it's good for 3 weapon loadouts.

As my mouse is really simple, all it has is left click, right click, scroll wheel up, scroll wheel down and press scroll wheel.

I have space bar as shield; left click as action, attack, etc; right click as move, but I rarely use it.

As for weapons i have scroll up as weapon 1, scroll down as weapon 2 and click scroll wheel as weapon 3.

I usually have two swords in slot 1 and 2 and I use slot 3 as support bomb, support gun, etc.

Wed, 01/18/2012 - 18:07

#26

Traevelliath

Hrm...

I order why weps based on how I use them. For example, a lot of times I will be merrily spamming my Polaris at a mob of oncoming slags when one slips past the expanded shots and come within melee range. I have 'Q' bound to swap weapons from my days of FPS. So, right after Polaris on my weapon loadout I have my Glacius. That way, when I suddenly have a slag within smacking range, I can press one button and smack him right back.

On Jelly King runs, right before my Polaris I have my Acheron. Most of the time I will be savagely pummeling slimes into a fine pinkish mist when a gun puppy or lumber interrupts me. With another press of a button and a bit of back pedaling I can easily execute said Gun Puppy or Lumber via my Polaris. If the lumber gets to close or I dont have that much room to maneuver away from the Gun Puppy, then I press the button again and I'm back to my Glacius.

I'm still not fully used to my 4th weapon slot, so I'll get back to you on that.

Wed, 01/18/2012 - 19:14

#27

Fehzor

My solution:

2 weapons. Because the game lets you choose weapons every level, and using more is just...

Wed, 01/18/2012 - 22:49

#28

Kilbride

Using four weapons...

I have a good mouse with a wheel and I know I could use hotkeys, but I actually still just use the spacebar to switch and cycle through. The sequence has become important, and I don't mess with it.

First slot is either the BTB or CIV. (So, always a quick weapon.)

Second slot is always my bomb, either the lightning capacitor or shivermist buster.

Third is a slow sword, either DA of GF. (The idea is to use my bomb and then immediately roll into making broad, sweeping attacks.)

Fourth is my gun, either my Callahan or AP. When I switch from shooting, I go back to slot one, using a quick sword.

So long as I keep my weapons in this order I cycle through efficiently and can handle anything. This even works in T2 and T3 Lockdown. Using hotkeys or the mouse wheel would be good, and maybe even better, but it'd mean having to slog through the adaptation period and I'm just not playing that much right now. And I hate it when I hit the wrong button for vials; I assume it'd be just as lame for weaponry. Slapping the spacebar has worked just fine for all the content I've played, including Shadow Lairs.

Thu, 01/19/2012 - 15:22

#29

Irokwe

not that l have any experience with this, but...

I use:
LMB=shield
RMB=attack
WASD=move
l *would* do:
Scroll Up=W1
" Button=W2
" Down=W3
Spacebar=W4

like l said, l have no experience with 4 weapons, but that's what l would do

Fri, 01/20/2012 - 16:45

#30

Daarke

umm....

I went out, bought a pc xbox-like gamepad, and i can play effortlessly by assigning Y, X, A, and RT as my weapon select buttons.

Sat, 01/21/2012 - 16:19

#31

Reisen

I've heard some mice can also

I've heard some mice can also handle tilt scroll wheel left/tilt scroll wheel right. So you can try using those in conjunction with scroll up/ scroll down/press scroll wheel for binding? Haven't tried myself.

Fri, 01/27/2012 - 18:55

#32

Rangerwillx

It appears I am one of the few who hasn't changed the controls one bit.
Right hand has control of the mouse, sometimes moving, always aiming, and a smaller % of the time attacking.
Left hand, has control of my belt, my movement, (most of the time) shielding, and attacking most of the time.
Of course when I'm gunning, I use my right click button always.
This is *almost* always how my set-up is in PvE.

1. The sword that goes best with my vortex.

2. The other sword that goes with my vortex and/or for the other enemies.

3. My gun appropriate to the kind of level.

4. Electron Vortex.

This way, I can set my vortex, go right to my brandish, charge attack the enemies in the vortex, and then finish them with my second sword if it was resistant to the charge attack. (Ex: Voltedge charge with constructs and gremlins in the vortex)

Sat, 01/28/2012 - 17:56

#33

Sternlock

Spiral Knights refuses to

Spiral Knights refuses to acknowledge my mouse's thumb-button. :[

Sat, 01/28/2012 - 21:49

#34

Darkbrady

Spiral Knights refuses to

Spiral Knights refuses to acknowledge my mouse's thumb-button. :[

Ikr? Kills me that I have thumb buttons at the side that could be perfectly well used, but it just wilnae let me use them QQ

Sat, 01/28/2012 - 23:37

#35

Nicoya-Kitty

Yeah, extra buttons seem not

Yeah, extra buttons seem not to work unless you bind them to a keystroke using whatever mouse software you have.

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Using Four Weapons: Coping Mechanisms?